In Fairytales
by Strike To Incinerate
Summary: [Postgame.][Kind of an alternate ending.][Lana Skye and Jake Marshall!] Now that the real truth behind SL9 and the death of Bruce Goodman has been exposed... there's just one thing left before Lana has her fairytale ending. [Complete with flashbacks!]


Author's Note: Hearing this song while I was supposed to be working on an essay during Composition made me want to write some more Lana/Jake. Because I adore that pairing, and apparently... I'm not the only one! I love that three other people picked up on the fact that Jake is so head-over-heels for Lana... he's just mad at her 'cuz of SL-9. They'll patch things up. And yes, this is the sequel to 'Ghost of You'.

--

'_Sitting in this room, playing Russian Roulette.   
Finger on the trigger to my dear Juliet.   
Out from the window, see her backdrop silhouette.   
This blood on my hands is something I cannot forget...'   
_'Not Good Enough for the Truth in Cliche' by Escape the Fate.

--

**In Fairytales  
A Lana Skye/Jake Marshall oneshot by Strike To Incinerate.**

**--**

"Now that you're free... sis, there's something I want to ask you," Ema said, smiling happily, as tears of joy dazzled in her big brown eyes. Neither of them had been guilty... and the real bad guy, the manipulative Chief of Police, Damon Gant (was it really so ironic that his name appeared so close to 'Demon Gaunt'?), was being carted away to jail... it was a perfect fairy-tale ending to the horror of the past two years. Well, not a _perfect __**fairytale**_ ending... but it was close. Almost there.

"What is it?" Lana replied. She felt free, liberated... it was so good. She'd never imagined that both her and Ema's names could be cleared, and she would be forever indebted to Phoenix Wright. She could start over, and perhaps she and Ema could become what she and Gant had once been... the best detectives the department had ever seen, but without the corruption and deceit.

Ema blushed a bit. "Well... while Phoenix and I were looking for clues in your old office... we found some blood on the floor in front of the desk. It was interesting." She paused. "Was it from you or Mr. Edgeworth?" she finished.

Lana shook her head. "Neither of us," she replied, her voice going a bit hollow.

Ema blinked, then asked, "Then from who...?"

--

_**THWACK.**_

_The sound of a small, delicate hand connecting with a rough, day-after-shaven cheek._

_A pair of glances exchanged, one enraged and hurt, the other surprised and repentant, in the silence._

_He spit, and then followed it with a soft rustle... a stain that would never show against a crimson cloth... so like the muffler she wore, and yet, so different... Had she wiped her hands, too, on her own neck warmer after rearranging the crime scene that she'd been brainwashed to think her sister was responsible for? Sweet, innocent Ema..._

"_The only person you look out for now is yourself... and Gant!"_

_That had hurt so much... so much more than slapping him, and the dullness and emptiness of coming what she hated most; a criminal. But she had done it to protect what she loved most; Ema. Couldn't Jake see, if he knew so much about SL-9, that it was all a sham? That she really did love them... him and Ema... so much? The last person she cared about now was Gant, but the irony of it was... she would be giving the rest of her life to him._

_She wiped up the small amount of blood before it stained the floor, but it would be a memory forever imprinted._

_--_

"So you and Mr. Marshall DID have something going on!" Ema said happily, but her smile soon faded as she realized that her sister's pain, which she thought she had come to understand, must've been doubled. "I knew it... I'm so sorry, Lana..." she said, hugging her older sister again, clinging, trying to keep those horrible memories away.

--

_Ema blinked as she heard the 'sheriff' proclaim that it was his 'gold mine' and that he would be the one digging up all the evidence on "Chief Prospector Skye"._

_She didn't even try to correct his horrible word usage, although it was easy to see why he would use 'prospector' instead of 'prosecutor'. "But you and my sister... you were..." she trailed off._

"_I'm mighty sorry, bambina..." he apologized._

_She knew then that Jake Marshall and her sister must've had something truly great... and her sister was hiding something just as terrible, if it could make her give up two people..._

_--_

Lana smoothed out her hair, a small comfort that she'd been unable to give since the incident. Now, she and Ema could have the closeness that she'd once cherished. "It's okay... It turned out alright in the end, didn't it?" she said.

Yes, her sister would only be going back to the Detention Center until the charges were formally brought against the Chief of Police... it almost was a fairytale ending, the pieces fitting perfectly together...

But, in fairytales, didn't the princess in peril always get her prince?

--

_Lana's eyes and heart stopped as her gaze landed on Angel Starr and Jake Marshall... Angel was carrying the things from her office, and Jake... his hand had found the small of her back, and he was smiling._

_She should've expected it. The Cough-Up Queen, wrangling confessions out of criminals, and the county 'sheriff'. Hell, she even looked like a saloon girl. She'd fit in Jake's western drama better than Lana herself ever could._

_That thought wasn't comforting. It didn't erase the ache in her chest at all. She tried to recall how many days ago Jake's lips had met her own... a week? Did that make him a player? If so, then she could find fault and think ill of him, tell herself that she was better off without such a playboy..._

_The new Chief of Police looked at her, flashing her a big grin. She knew what he was going to do..._

"_Why, hello there, CHIEF PROSECUTOR Skye!" he called from across the room, pushing his trademark rose-colored sunglasses up the bridge of his nose, and waving to her._

_Jake's head whipped around, and his face fell to see her look away._

_Angel latched onto his arm as it withdrew from her back._

_Lana briefly wondered... if she broke Gant's glasses, would his world seem so rosy?_

_And would she also manage to break his nose?_

_--_

"You can make-up! It'll be perfect... Mr. Marshall still might...!" Ema said excitedly, while Lana shook her head. How sweet hope could be... and how cruel, logic.

"I doubt it. I was so horrible to him..." she said. "I don't deserve it."

"But... it wasn't your fault! It was all Gant's!" Ema said, pulling away from her sister to look the taller in the eyes, her small fists clenched.

Her hands... used to do that, too... when she stood up, trying to make her point, to get the rest of the department to see that the evidence was so conclusive...

Gant was always smiling, smoothing things over, paraphrasing her to make it more eloquent and convincing. She should've known he'd turn that on her one day.

Jake had never done that. With his funny accent, he'd lay the facts on the table. No opinions, letting the evidence speak for it's self. He was spirited, though... no one ever challenged him. Angel would then use that evidence to 'coerce' the 'truth' from the suspects. How funny it was that she thought prosecutors were evil, falsifying testimonies and evidence when she, unknowingly perhaps, might've forced suspects to crack and give admissions of crimes they didn't commit.

--

_Jake loved Lana._

_She had that one coming. Everyone loved Lana. When Chief Gant and Detective Goodman threw a party for his promotion, no one celebrated Lana's sudden acquisition of the Chief Prosecutor position. No one in the departed wanted to see her go, but now the famed detective duo would ensure that no criminals ever escaped. They had almost the entire local justice system between them. All they needed was a judge, and the three-day trial law would suddenly be the one-hour-verdict._

_Still, the mention of Lana's name, although she'd pushed Jake away, sent the cowboy's head jerking around for the sight of her. He'd forgotten that Angel, standing beside him, his hand on her back... escorting her back to her apartment... where they could find solace in each other... out the window, because of that damned Gant. What was he, showing off? 'Oh, haha, I've got Lana in my pocket!' How mature. And it hurt that Jake would ignore her so quickly... she wrapped her arm around his, sidling up to him. That got his attention again... if only because Lana wasn't gracing him with her oh-so-wonderful gaze..._

_But Lana didn't love Jake._

_--_

"I'm sorry to do this, Chief Prosecutor... but you still have to come with us," an officer announced. He looked completely unwilling, but it was his job, and Lana wouldn't resist. She'd see Ema again soon. "You'll probably be released tomorrow, along with Officer Meekins," the officer said kindly.

Lana smiled to him, once so rare an action that now that she felt warm and alive again, she never wanted to stop. Smiling felt so good. "Alright."

"Step back there, pardner," a gruff voice said.

The officer turned around. "Officer Marshall... when did you...?"

Jake Marshall grinned, but not to Lana. "They just let me out of the steel dogie pen," he explained. "I'll escort Miss Skye there," he offered.

"You can't, you're not a..."

"Consider it a last request," he said with a wink. The officer nodded. The former detective and patrolman took the Chief Prosecutor's arm. "We won't be needing cuffs, eh bambina?" he asked her.

Lana, who'd been standing frozen, nodded. Jake... was talking to her? "No sir," she answered.

She could've sworn that she heard a chuckle escape his throat, but no.

"I want to come with you!" Ema cried, following them. She knew that she was probably destroying any hope of a romantic reunion between them, but she wanted to see them smile at each other like they'd used to.

"Sure thing, little lady," Jake agreed.

"Bye, Miss Skye!" Phoenix called. Edgeworth, standing beside him, gave a small wave, and Gumshoe was still throwing confetti everywhere.

One of Lana's hands held Ema's and the other stayed at her side. She took in a deep breath. "Jake..."

"Yeah, bambina?" He didn't look at her.

"You know why I couldn't tell you."

Ema rolled her eyes. Couldn't they just kiss and not being drama-mongers? Honestly!

"No ma'am, I don't," he replied, glancing down at her.

"How would you have felt if you thought Ema was the one who killed Neil?" she asked. Jake opened his mouth to reply, but she continued. "Or, if the tables were turned, and you thought that Neil may have killed Ema, even on accident?" she asked him.

He shook his head, objecting, "But that was all Gant's doing!"

Lana nodded. "But I didn't know that at the time..."

"You should've told me, bambina..." he grumbled. "I could've..."

"You could've what?" she inquired sweetly.

"Protected you. Angel, Bruce and I... we liked Ema. We still do," he said, tossing the girl a small smile. "We would've investigated everything..."

"And meanwhile, SL-9 would be pushed back, and Darke would've eventually been free," she said. "I couldn't let that happen, not after he tried to kill Ema."

"But you shouldn't have...!" his hands clenched into fists.

"I did what I had to," Lana said softly. "Please, don't be angry with me, anymore..."

Jake softened, wrapping his arms around Lana, pressing his lips into her hair. "I'm not. I stopped bein' angry a few hundred suns ago."

Ema let her sister's hands go, and asked coyly, "Is this the part where you two ride off into the sunset on Mr. Marshall's steel steed?"

"Why you...!" They immediately broke apart, Lana blushing and Jake... well, it was hard to tell through the tan, but he probably was, too.

Now, Ema knew, it was a perfect fairytale ending.

--

Ta-dah. Lana and Jake live happily ever after. -kicks Angel off a bridge.-

Review, please? Pretty please?


End file.
